Nordic Road and Transport Research 1-2006

NORDIC ROAD AND TRANSPORT RESEARCH | NO.1 | 2006

About Man in the Transport System P8

New Research in Public Transport P16

News from Danish Road Directorate (DRD) Danish Road Institute (DRI) The Road Directorate, which is a part of The Ministry of Transport & Energy, Denmark, is responsible for development and management of the national highways and for servicing and facilitating traffic on the network. As part of this responsibility, the Directorate conducts R&D, the aim of which is to contribute to efficient road management and to the safe use of the network. The materials research component is carried out by the Danish Road Institute.

Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT), VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is a contract research organisation with a staff of 2,800. In this joint publication, the VTT expertise areas cover research and development of transportation, logistics and road structures. The work is carried out in five research groups employing a staff of 60.

Icelandic Road Administration (ICERA)

Editorial notes Nordic Road & Transport Research is a joint publication of six public road and transport research organisations in the Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The main objective of the publication is to disseminate research results and news from the institutions, especially to researchers and decision makers. Each institution is responsible for the selection and presentation of the material from its own scope of activities.

Nordic Road & Transport Research is published three times a year. It is regularly sent out, free of charge, to recipients selected by the six joint publishers. Free sample copies are also sent out on special request.

Reproduction and quotation of the texts are allowed if reference is made to the author and source.

However, legislation regulates and restricts the right to reproduce the illustrations. Please contact the respective publishing institution for information.

Advertising is not accepted.

Correspondence about the contents of the publication:

2 | NORDIC NO. 1 2006

Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) The Norwegian Public Roads Administration is one of the administrative agencies under the Ministry of Transport and Communications in Norway. The NPRA is responsible for the development and management of public roads and road traffic, as well as the Vehicle Department. This responsibility includes research and development of all areas related to road transport and the implementation of R&D results.

Institute of Transport Economics (TØI), Norway The Institute of Transport Economics is the national institution for transport research and development in Norway. The main objectives of the Institute are to carry out applied research and promote the application and use of results through consultative assistance to public authorities, the transport industry and others. The Institute is an independent research foundation employing about one hundred persons.

VTI, Sweden

The ICERA's mission is to provide the Icelandic society with a road system in accordance with its needs and to provide a service with the aim of smooth and safe traffic. The number of employees is about 340. Applied research and development and to some extent also basic research concerning road construction, maintenance, traffic and safety is performed or directed by the ICERA. Development division is responsible for road research in Iceland.

VTI is an independent, internationally established research institute which is engaged in the transport sector. Our core competence is in the fields of safety, economy, environment, traffic and transport analysis, behaviour and the man-vehicle-transport system interaction, and in road design, operation and maintenance. VTI is a world leader in several areas, for instance in simulator technology.

Please write to the author or to the respective publishing organisation.

Requests for back issues, and notification of address changes: Readers outside the Nordic countries: please write to the Editor-in-chief at the VTI in Sweden.

Readers in the Nordic countries: please contact the publishing institution of your country.

Addresses: see back cover.

Finland

The Editorial Board consists of the following representatives of the publishing institutions

Kari Mäkelä, VTT kari.makela@vtt.fi

Iceland Hreinn Haraldsson, ICERA hrh@vegagerdin.is

Norway Nils Fearnley, TØI naf@toi.no Thorbjørn Chr. Risan, NPRA thorbjorn.risan@vegvesen.no

Graphic Design

Editor-in-Chief, Sweden

Johnny Dahlgren Grafisk produktion AB,

Magdalena Green, VTI magdalena.green@vti.se

Linköping, Sweden

Denmark Helen Hasz-Singh, DRI hhz@vd.dk

Issue 3,500 ISSN 1101-5179 Cover Photos.com

www.vti.se/nordic

Contents In Brief | p4 What’s Up | p8 Women and Men in Traffic | p9 VMS and Driver Behaviour | p10 Fatigue on the Bridge | p12 New Rider Training System in Norway | p13 Road Safety Lillehammer – Towards Vision Zero | p14 Public Transport Packages of Measures: Lessons learned from combined public transport experiments in Norway | p16 VTI Is Making a Concentrated Effort in Public Transport | p18 Competitive Tendering in Norwegian Public Transport | p20 Multimodal Traffic Information Architecture | p22 Do Japanese Cars Come with a Japanese Pavement? | p24 Female Crash Test Dummy May Improve Protection in Traffic | p26 Praise for the Norwegian Roads Recycling R&D Program | p27 Soil Stabilisation with Lime for Road Construction | p28 Tunnel Investigation and Groundwater Control | p30 Annotated Reports | p31

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PHOTOS.COM

IN BRIEF

As previously mentioned in Nordic Road & Transport Research, the Danish Road Directorate is expanding in 2007, due to the fact that the Danish government decided in 2002 to merge the existing 13 counties and 172 municipalities into some 100 bigger municipalities. 8,000 km of regional roads will become municipal roads, and 2,000 km will be transferred to the Danish Road Directorate. Accordingly, some 400 employees will be transferred from the present county administrations to the Road Directorate which will establish six Road

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Centres to cover the future national road network.

The map shows where the six centres will be situated. In Skanderborg in Jutland and in Fløng in Zealand, new buildings will be constructed as an addition to existing buildings where the Danish Road Directorate already has offices.

The other four centres will be located in leased suitable buildings.

Also shown on the map, is the length of roads which will be administered by each of the six Road Centres.

Officially on 1 January 2007, but in reality just before Christmas 2006, the Danish Road Directorate will welcome app. 300 new employees in newly established Road Centres, where six newly employed Centre leaders will establish routines regarding construction and maintenance of the main road network under the control of the Danish Road Directorate. The remaining number of new colleagues will continue to work in the road depots and will only indirectly become affliliated with the road centres.

In order to make the integration of the new employees easier, a Road Directorate Meeting will take place in early February where old and new employees from all offices will meet each other for a two-day seminar.

DRUID – An EU project The number of accidents that can be coupled to psychoactive substances – alcohol, drugs and certain medicines – remains at a high level. It is accidents involving drugs and medicines which have increased most in recent years.

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Six New Road Centres

The EU project DRUID (Driving under the Influence of Drugs, Alcohol and Medicine) unites 21 European countries to combat driving under the influence of drugs, alcohol and medicine. Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland will be involved in the project. The project will commence mid 2006, given that it is ethically approved.

VTI’s cooperation in the project comwww.vti.se/nordic

prises both experimental studies using the driving simulator, and field studies in which the incidence of drugs and medicines on the roads will be kept under observation. VTI is also engaged in a subproject which is to study why people drive while under the influence.

TØI, in cooperation with the Norwegian Public Health Institute, will participate in the work with epidemiology, i.e. prevalence of drugs and alcohol among the general driver population and the accident involvement of drivers under the influence of psychoactive substances. TØI will also participate in the work with enforcement, i.e. the development of new tools to make detection easier and the cost-benefit analyses of enforcement methods.

The intention is that DRUID will describe the extent and nature of the problem.

The actual situation is not known at present since police checks are often made when a high incidence of drugs and alcohol is suspected. In DRUID the actual incidence will also be compared with the accident situation so that a measure of the risk may be obtained.

The project will also study how police surveillance can be designed for maximum effectiveness, and also how driver training, information campaigns and rehabilitation can be formulated so that the problem may be prevented right from the beginning.

The project engages 38 partners from 21 European countries, with representatives from e.g. R&D institutes, universities and the police. VTI is taking part as the only Swedish partner. In view of the complexity of the project, experts from many areas will be needed, and VTI will cooperate with both the National Board of Forensic Medicine in Linköping and the National Police Board.

Mobile traffic messages The Danish Road Directorate has now started a new service on its website www.trafikken.dk, which makes it possible for users of mobile telephones and PDA’s to receive up-to-date traffic information via the mobile internet. The service can be accessed via

the internet address mobil.trafikken.dk, and gives the road user the possibility to receive information, which is adjusted to the small screens of mobile phones and PDA’s, if the road user does not have access to regular PC’s.

The information available covers the main road network in Denmark and the relevant area can be chosen either by means of a map of Denmark or by highlighting areas from a list of areas.

The information can be accessed throughout the day, every day of the year and is maintained by the TrafficInformationCentre at the Danish Road Directorate.

ICERA’s Research Funding 2006 The Icelandic Road Administration’s budget is defined by law as specific part of fuel tax income. It is stated in the Road Act, that 1per cent of this income goes directly into research and development. Each year, the Research Department of ICERA asks for application for funding of research projects. In 2006 there were 148 applications asking for 2,6 million Euros. There were 1,3 million Euros granted to 95 projects. The projects are divided into four main groups: 1. Infrastructure; 2. Traffic; 3. Environment; 4. Society. Most of the projects fall into the first two groups. Some 15 per cent of the projects concern basic research, 70 per cent applied research and 15% development.

Some of the research projects are worked

out by ICERA itself, but most of them are performed by others, like the universities, other laboratories and consultants.

TRB prize to TØI researcher Rune Elvik The committee on statistical methodology and statistical software awarded TØI researcher Rune Elvik the prize for best paper at the recent TRB conference. In his paper, "Can we trust the results of meta-analyses?

A systematic approach to sensitivity analysis in meta-analyses", Elvik argues that every metaanalysis involves a number of choices made by the analyst. The choices made can affect the results of the analysis. He proposes that every meta-analysis should include a sensitivity analysis, and develops an index which summarises the results of a sensitivity analysis; the robustness score.

Transportforum® 2006 Transportforum® was held in Linköping, Sweden, in January. It is the largest annual conference for the transport sector in Sweden. The entire transport sector meets to exchange information and to make contacts during two intensive days. The well filled programme this year attracted about 1,600 delegates, 400 of whom had presentations.

The opening ceremony this year focused on the role of the railway in society and called attention to the 150th anniversary of the railway in Sweden.

Transportforum® has been arranged since the beginning of the 1980s, and has gathered strength both in regard to the number of delegates and the number of papers since the first conference.

– We make small improvements all the time to raise the quality, says Rose-Marie Leveau, administrative project leader at VTI. We are already at work on next year’s meeting.

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VTI at PIARC International Winter Road Congress

PHOTO: HANS ANTONSSON, VTI

The main congress theme at the 12th International Winter Road Congress of PIARC in Torino, Italy, in March 2006 was ”Keeping road users on the move in winter”.

The technical sessions at the congress were divided in six themes that, in their turn, included 120 presentations. There was also a poster session with about 20 presentations.

VTI was well represented at the congress.

First of all there was Gudrun Öberg, Research Director in the area of infrastructure maintenance at VTI, who gave an address at the opening ceremony on behalf of the PIARC Technical Committee 3.4 on Winter Maintenance. She pressed, among others things, the importance of sharing knowledge at this kind of international occasions.

There were also seven VTI researchers who presented their latest research achievements, among them papers presenting a comprehensive model to improve winter maintenance and road performance called Vintermodellen.

Roads Elicit Sensory Responses

– Very impressive, was a Japanese researcher’s commentary of this model.

Different sub-models of this overall winter model about road condition, accident risk and environment were presented, too.

Read more at www.vti.se/winter.

VTI research was also presented concerning the areas of automated monitoring of ground water contamination of deicing salt, archeological artefacts exposed to deicing salt and road dust generated by road wear.

VTI had also a part in a Nordic booth under the common slogan ”Nordic snowhow”.

A road is not only an engineering structure for traffic. The road is also a provider of knowledge and experience, a first contact with the surroundings. It is therefore important that the special features of the landscape should be borne in mind when a road is planned.

A country is divided into a number of geographical areas of different characters.

It may be buildings, farmland or vegetation that give the area its typical character.

During the process of planning the extension of the transport network, it is important to pay attention to the landscape and its distinctive character. This applies in particular to Sweden which is expected soon to ratify the Landscape Convention of the European Council.

The problem of the fragmentation and destruction of nature is to be found in the whole of Europe. An international demand has arisen for research in this area. The

PHOTOS.COM

Strong Feelings in Traffic – a Danger

Our behaviour in traffic is governed by an aggressive and hot temperament. This is shown by the studies made by Sonja Forward, VTI psychologist and traffic researcher. An angry motorist often drives without care. Sonja’s studies demonstrate that if we are easily provoked in the car, we are also easily provoked outside the car.

There are mainly four types of road users that we motorists are irritated by.

These are the slow drivers, those who tell us 6 | NORDIC NO. 1 2006

that we are wrong by hooting or showing two fingers, drivers who break the rules and those who do not consider or respect other motorists.

– There is no point in getting angry in traffic, it is simply impossible to change how other motorists drive. The only thing you yourself can influence is your own reaction to the behaviour of others, says Sonja Forward. Giving vent to one’s anger in traffic can result in causing an accident.

– We need to create greater awareness of the fact that traffic is also a matter of social interaction. We haven’t always had such an unpleasant traffic environment, and I am therefore convinced that we can change again. Starting to smile at one another is a very good start.

aim of the new interdisciplinary research programme INCLUDE (Integration of Ecological and Cultural Dimensions in Transport Infrastructure Management) is to provide a basis for better adaptation of communication routes to the natural and cultural values of the landscape. The research programme is a cooperation among Swedish universities, institutes and authorities, among whom VTI is included. www.vti.se/nordic

IN BRIEF

VTT Creates Competitiveness and New Opportunities to its Stakeholders VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is the biggest contract research organisation in Northern Europe and has competence to provide its clients competitiveness and new opportunities. This is based on VTT’s ability to combine different fields of high-level expertise to technology solutions and innovation services. Through its international scientific and technological network VTT can produce information, upgrade technology knowledge, create business intelligence and value added to its stakeholders.

VTT’s technology choices are based on meeting the future needs of markets and society. VTT is purposefully focusing its resources on technologies and core competencies that are essential for their future competitiveness. In these areas they intend to maintain their present position of international leadership.

VTT reorganised In order to serve its customers better, VTT has reorganised its activities. Prior, VTT consisted of six research institutes that have now been replaced with functions and processes. VTT’s new organisation and

operating model ensure that the opportunities afforded by new technologies spawned from strategic research can be exploited in collaboration with customers and partners.

VTT is able to support its customers in exploitation of industrial rights and also to offer testing, product approval, certification and other expert services in support of product development and commercialisation.

By increasing the parallel working of VTT’s functions, the commercialisation of innovations can be speeded up and the transition from research to business can be accomplished seamlessly.

The Research and Development function is responsible for the production, development, international competitiveness and efficiency of VTT’s R&D services. The function enables VTT’s expertise to be assembled into a more efficient and synergistic whole.

The Business Solutions function is responsible for the marketing and sales of VTT services and for the development of business expertise and the customer-focused innovation process. The function is accountable for the profitability of VTT’s contract research work.

The Strategic Research function is responsible for the use of basic funding based on VTT’s technology strategy. It steers and co-ordinates VTT’s strategic research and technological development, and ensures the scientific prerequisites for VTT’s activities as well as the maintenance and development of basic scientific knowledge. The function is accountable for the results of VTT’s self-financed and jointly funded research work.

The Expert Services function produces the consulting, testing and certification services offered by VTT and is responsible for their quality and profitability.

The Ventures function handles the commercialisation of research results, the development of new ventures and spin-offs, and the exploitation of IPR assets such as the patent portfolio.

Additional information about VTT Olli Ernvall Communications Director +358 20 722 6747 Olli.Ernvall@vtt.fi

Correction In the previous issue of Nordic we that Liisa Hakamies-Blomqvist, former scientific director at VTI, has started at Nordforsk. We want to make it clear that she is not Swedish, but a Finn who has worked in Sweden.

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WHAT’S UP IN THE NORDIC COUNTRIES?

Road and Traffic 2006 September 12th - 13th Trondheim, Norway The Norwegian Public Roads Administration, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology and The Norwegian Road and Traffic Association will keep up the tradition and also this year arrange a new conference for road and traffic.

Road and Traffic 2006 appeals to everybody who deals with road and traffic issues in all sectors of the society. Students are offered the opportunity to attend the conference free of charge. The intension with the conference is to bring people from different areas of specialisation together so that they can build and extend their professional network. The conference is also an opportunity to bring students and professionals together.

The conference will take place on 12-13 September at The Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, the most important educational establishment within the road and traffic profession in Norway.

More details of the arrangement will be published in May-June 2006 on the homepage of the conference, h t t p : / / w w w. ntnu.no/videre/konferanse/vot/. The conference language will be Norwegian.

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PHOTO: ØYSTEIN MYHRE

NORWAY

Reinforcement of Pavements May 22th - 23th Trondheim, Norway On May 22-23, 2006, a seminar on the use of reinforcement in road pavements will be held in Trondheim, Norway, by joint efforts of Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA), the Norwegian Geotechnical Society (NGF) and SINTEF. The seminar focuses on the use of reinforcement in bituminous layers (wearing course or binder course), and in granular layers (base layer, subbase layer and pavement layers in preliminary roads/haulage roads on relatively soft subsoil). Reinforcement has been used in several projects through the years, and it is now time for making a summary of the experience. The design of the pavement and choosing the right reinforcement methods are crucial for a good result. The basic experience to be incorporated in future guidelines on reinforcement design, will be presented and discussed at the seminar.

The seminar is addressed to pavement designers, pavement management engineers (roadholders), civil engineering consulting

companies, contractors and reinforcement product manufacturers and suppliers.

Registration fee is NOK 3,000 and closing date for application is May 15, 2006.

The seminar will be held in Norwegian.

No translation service is provided, but certain key information will be available in English.

You will find further information about the seminar on: http://www.sintef.no/ vegarmeringsseminar.

SWEDEN TRA June 12th - 15th Göteborg, Sweden TRA, Transport Research Arena, is an event for the alignment of the road transport research and development stakeholders, contributing to a European Research Area on road transport. This will contribute to a more competitive, sustainable, safer and efficient road transport system. All aspects of road transport will be covered.

The mission is to support the alignment of European, national, regional and private research and development actions on road transport by enhancing the networking and clustering of Europe's research and development capacity based on a shared Strategic Research Agenda.

The conference has a clear EU look as both the European Commission and the European countries are involved in the conference on many different levels. For further information see: www.traconference.com www.vti.se/nordic

MAN IN THE TRANSPORT SYSTEM

Women and Men in Traffic

PHOTOS.COM

Men generally drive more than women. Men and women are therefore not equal as regards driving, in spite of all progress towards equality. There are gender differences that are associated with the complex roles we are collectively allocated in society and which we more or less accept.

here are many attempts to find explanations why women drive much less than men. Many refer to the double role of women, working and being the person principally responsible for the household and the family. For practical reasons, women look for places of work near the home. At the same time, places of work that will attract female staff are located near housing areas. But the matter is more complex than this.

Men find it easier to see the car as something self evident, and they also accept arguments in favour of car ownership more easily. Both men and women are aware of the negative effect the car has on the environment and equate that effect with that due to eutrophication by agriculture, oil discharges, industrial emissions, etc. Women do not regard the car in the same self evident way as men, and can see other options more easily and can also use these when necessary. They can also understand more easily arguments that are critical of car ownership. Several studies refer to the greater understanding that women

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have for environmental and traffic safety aspects.

On average, men and women travel about equally often and spend about the same time travelling, but men travel in, and primarily drive, the car much more than women. In principle, this holds for all transport scenarios, but applies most to journeys to work and journeys on official business. Women make many more journeys connected with giving lifts, such as taking children to and from school.

There are still far fewer elderly women than elderly men and young women who have driving licences. Elderly men have greater access to a car and keep on driving to a higher age than women.

On the whole, responsibility for a child has a great effect on travel behaviour, especially that of women, but it is only to a certain extent that the overriding difference can be explained in socioeconomic terms.

It must be acknowledged that, quite simply, men and women do not have the same type of relationship with the car.

It is almost impossible to try and explain

why men and women have such different attitudes to the car. Most explanations are indirect ones, for instance that women have greater responsibility for children and the household, and they do not really answer the question. The car must therefore continue to be regarded as primarily a classic masculine arena, even though changes can be discerned.

This project has been a study of the literature with the aim of increasing and intensifying knowledge of the different underlying factors which influence men’s and women’s attitudes to the car, car ownership and driving. The project is seen as the first part of a major project in which this study will form the basis in designing the rest of the project.

Magdalena Green, VTI, Sweden

Title: Men and woman in traffic – A literature review Contact: Hans-Åke Cedersund, hans-ake.cedersund@vti.se

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MAN IN THE TRANSPORT SYSTEM

PHOTO: FRIDULV SAGBERG

Figure 1. VMS influences route choice, but imposes conflicting attention demands on the drivers.

VMS and Driver Behaviour A field study of the effects of Variable Message Signs (VMS) on driver attention and behaviour has shown high compliance with messages on VMS, but also that processing of the messages leads to distraction which might lead to dangerous traffic situations, and thus accidents.

raffic information comprises many different sources of information from the road environment, which are implemented in order to influence road user behaviour.

We have investigated the effects of Variable Message Signs (VMS) on indicators of driver attention in a field study. More specifically, the following two questions were addressed: • To what extent do car drivers perceive roadside traffic information and comply with the advice that is given?

• Does traffic information have adverse effects on drivers in terms of distracting them from the driving task, and to what extent can such adverse effects be avoided?

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Theory and study design In order to influence driver behaviour, traffic information must attract the drivers’ attention and provide information that corresponds to their information needs. At the same time it should not distract drivers from their primary task of car driving.

Irrelevant information should be avoided.

Good knowledge about driver information needs, information processing capacity, and limitations is therefore necessary for optimal design and presentation of traffic information.

Driver information needs are related to different driving tasks. The sources of information are the vehicle and the traffic environment, including traffic informa-

tion. Attention is a precondition for information processing. Attention may be allocated to different sources of information, but conflicts may occur between the demands from different tasks, either because the demands are incompatible or because they overtax the total attention capacity. When task demands exceed attention capacity, the probability of driving errors increases, resulting in elevated risk of conflicts or crashes.

Two VMS on motorways were used in the study. On three evenings, the VMS presented either no message or a message recommending an alternative route because of a closed road section.

Compliance with the messages was www.vti.se/nordic

measured by registering the proportion of vehicles choosing the recommended route.

Data on driver behaviour included speed measurements and observation of braking behaviour based on video recordings. One of the VMS is shown in Figure 1, as seen from the video camera.

Findings The results show that a large proportion of drivers comply with the messages. It was estimated that about every 5th vehicle

changed route choice according to the recommendation. Almost none drove as far as the closed road segment. This indicates that a large proportion of drivers complied with the message and avoided the closed road segment, but by choosing an alternative route to the one recommended on the VMS. In this way, VMS can be considered to fulfil its purpose of traffic management satisfactorily.

However, speed recordings indicate large speed reductions when the VMS show

messages. A much higher proportion of vehicles braked when a message was shown on the VMS than when no message was shown. Many vehicles additionally changed driving lane or made others change lane.

As abrupt speed reductions, braking, and lane changes lead to increased proportions of small headways between vehicles following each other, an increase in conflicts must be expected, which may lead to collisions.

The results lead to the conclusion that VMS attract attention and can be effective in influencing route choice, but that VMS and driving impose conflicting attention demands on the drivers. Explanations can be located at different levels of the driving task. On the operational level, driving can be impaired by increased visual load, e.g. due to short reading distance. The tactical level of the driving task can be affected by the attempt of the driver to gain time by reducing speed, which additionally can make lane change necessary. The strategic level of the driving task, which includes navigation, is the target level of the traffic information used in this study. Depending on formal and content aspects of the messages, the information can additionally affect driving on the operational and tactical level, by reducing available information processing capacity.

Consequently, traffic information should make it possible for drivers to establish an immediate link between the message and the driving task on the target level, without detracting from driving on other levels. This can be achieved by increasing reading distance by an appropriate design of display elements, and by use of symbols corresponding to drivers’ mental representations of the driving task, possibly in combination with speed limits.

Alena Erke and Fridulv Sagberg, TĂ˜I, Norway

Title: Traffic information and driver attention: A study of variable message signs and their effects on driving behaviour Authors: Alena Erke, Rolf Hagman, Fridulv Sagberg TĂ˜I report no: 799/2005 Language: Norwegian with English summary Available on www.toi.no

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MAN IN THE TRANSPORT SYSTEM

Fatigue on the Bridge It is not only in road traffic that fatigue is a serious problem.

Tired ships’ officers and long periods of duty may be the reason why many ships run aground.

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clock. It is not unusual for such an arrangement to continue for several months. The Administration’s statistics show that there have been 22 groundings in Swedish waters between 1997 and 2002 where fatigue has been considered one of the causes. Many of these were “two-watch” ships.

TI is now entering into cooperation with the Karolinska Institute and the Maritime Safety Inspectorate concerning a comprehensive study that will chart the scope of the problem. This will be done by travelling on the ship and studying and interviewing the crew.

– The Swedish Maritime Administration estimates that fatigue may be one cause in between 15 to 20 per cent of groundings in Sweden, says Margareta Lützhöft, maritime researcher at VTI.

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Ships’ officers under a magnifying glass The study focuses on around 30 ships’ officers. They are asked to keep diaries and to complete questionnaires in combination with physiological measurements which will register fatigue and quality of sleep.

What researchers are hoping is that they 12 | NORDIC NO. 1 2006

will find methods that will reduce fatigue, by combining various measures such as changed work routines and schedules, improved technology, improved design of ships and dissemination of other knowledge concerning e.g. the correct food.

Is the problem more serious than before?

– I think it is, since crew sizes have been reduced over the past decades.

Hard watches affect sleep Over the past decades ship’s officers have been given increased duties, and often they are probably alone on watch. The result is long and difficult watches without a sufficiently long continuous period of sleep.

According to the National Maritime Administration, the risk is greatest when two officers share the watches over the day, divided into six-hour watches round the

Regulations are complicated To complicate matters further, regulations which mean a lot of extra work have been introduced. The end result may be that ship’s officers get too little rest, and in the worst case this may lead to lack of attention on watch. The regulations have been drawn up to enhance safety on board ships, but in the worst case they may have reduced safety. According to Margareta, it is difficult to introduce more stringent requirements such as requirements for more crew members. International competition is hard, and the risk is that ships will take flags of convenience.

– We have so much maritime know-how in our project that we realise we cannot propose something that would cost so much that flags of convenience are a risk.

We will submit a number of proposals they can choose from as their economic and organisational conditions allow, so that they can pick the ones that suits them, says Margareta.

Michael Höglund, VTI, Sweden www.vti.se/fatigueatsea Contact: Margareta Lützhöft, margareta.lutzhoft@vti.se

www.vti.se/nordic

New Rider Training System in Norway Norway has implemented new driver and rider training system for all driving license categories from January 1, 2005.

The new training model is largely based on research related theories on driver and rider training development. The GADGET matrix, (Hatakka, Keskinen, Gregersen & Glad, 1999; Hatakka, Keskinen, Gregersen, Glad & Hernetkoski, 2002) served as the basis for the development work. The model describes what the driver or rider must learn at four different hierarchic levels.

ur new category A curriculum is also based on this matrix as far as training content is concerned. This is specifically expressed by having the training organized into our general four-step curriculum model with emphasizes on the following seven subjects:

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1.

2.

3.

4.

Legislation and road traffic as a system Maneuvering a vehicle Road traffic skills Economical and environmentally friendly riding 5. Planning and preparation for riding 6. Behavioral and judgmental tendencies 7. Knowledge of one’s own competence and of one’s personal behavioral and judgmental tendencies.

The new motorcycle training program is characterized by its focusing on basic technical riding skills that have specifically been placed in the first part of the training.

However, continuous emphasis has also been put on precise technical riding skills throughout the entire training process.

Any particular type of training that might lead to excessive confidence in one’s own skills has deliberately been avoided. A four-lesson mandatory safety course in precise riding techniques has therefore been included. For this course we have developed four technical riding exercises that emphasize the rider’s ability to understand

that skills in braking and steering the motorcycle in a correct and precise manner are the basis of safety on the roads. The training methods have been developed to give the student experience rather than a conformist training in mastering all situations.

The student’s technical riding skills then form the basis of the concluding traffic training in step four of our general curriculum model. Here behavioral and judgmental tendencies, self-knowledge as well as planning and preparation for riding

form the central elements. A mandatory eight-hour category A course in safe road riding, where theory and practice are integrated, is included in this last step of the training.

It is essential that riding instructors in charge of teaching according to the new curriculum possess the necessary competence for attaining the intended reduction in motorcycle accidents. A mandatory supplementary training course for motorcycle related teaching has conPHOTO: BJØRN ANDREAS LUND sequently been established. The content of this one-week course is primarily aimed at understanding the curriculum’s intentions, precise riding techniques, the required training methods and other related topics. This course is offered

by Nord-Trøndelag University College, Faculty of Driving Instructor Education.

Bjørn A. Lund, bjorn.lund@vegvesen.no Norwegian Public Roads Administration

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MAN IN THE TRANSPORT SYSTEM

Road Safety Lillehammer – Towards Vision Zero In Norway approximately 250–300 persons are killed and 1,200 are seriously injured in road traffic accidents annually. The level of effort should be high when it comes to saving lives and preventing mutilation. Therefore, in our endeavours towards road safety, we focus on Vision Zero. Vision Zero is our image of a future situation where nobody is killed or seriously injured in road accidents – a difficult, if not impossible goal to reach. But the Vision should stimulate development of measures for accident prevention in order to turn this Vision into reality.

The national demonstration project In general The national demonstration project for Vision Zero was established in the district of Lillehammer in 2003. It will last through 2006. The project is based on experiences from a Swedish Vision Zero Project implemented in the Trollhaettan region during 2000-2001. Initiators behind the Norwegian project are the Norwegian Public Roads Administration in co-operation with the police, The Norwegian Council for Road Safety, Oppland County and the municipalities Lillehammer, Øyer and Gausdal. The project is embedded in the National Transport Plan, the Strategic Plan for Road Safety and the National Plan of Action for Road Traffic Safety 2002–2011. The project has a total budget of 12,5 million.

The demonstration road A demonstration road is included in the project. The demonstration road encompasses a total of 32 km of a varied selection roads in the Lillehammer and Øyer municipalities. Euroroute 6 accounts for approximately 20 km; County Road No. 312 and 319 approximately 10 km; municipal roads, less than 2 km of the total.

Tasks and challenges Some main tasks of the project are to: • Solve an existing problem of frequent accidents on the demonstration road.

• Implement measures against the most 14 | NORDIC NO. 1 2006

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serious accidents, based on the philosophy that Vision Zero means that loss of life and damage to health will be prevented through the reduction of injuries caused by unpreventable accidents.

Use measures in the project that addresses the entire traffic system, including the road, the vehicle and the road user.

Include the thoroughfare, local roads, village roads and town roads. The demonstration road includes streets with heavy traffic and a large number of pedestrians and cyclists, typical villages (also with substantial tourist traffic), a two-lane, high-standard road, as well as county roads in the form of local roads running parallel to the E6 and used extensively by cyclists and pedestrians.

Include a mixture of well-known and new measures for accident prevention.

This also means a combination of wellknown measures used in new settings/ dimensions.

Establish a communication centre focusing on road safety and promoting the project both locally and nationwide at the Norwegian Road Museum at Hunderfossen 20 km north of Lillehammer.

The main challenges of the project are to: • Render visible different courses of action that can be taken in accident prevention.

• Demonstrate what can be achieved within a reasonable economic framework.

• Provide space for new perspectives and encourage research institutions to be engaged in the project. Several research and development institutions are involved.

• Enhance awareness of road safety issues and provide useful information about the project to visitors and to the population, both locally and nationwide.

Target groups The demonstration project targets every road user – children, young people, adults, senior citizens, decisionmakers and others who in a professional capacity can contribute to improving road safety. Reaching the age group 15-24 is of particular interest as this group is especially prone to accidents.

Project details A number of the measures included in the project are in themselves so comprehensive that they can be regarded as separate research projects.

Roads • Measures targeting the entire road network The entire 32 km demonstration road has been reviewed with the aim of identifying and improving inappropriate solutions pertaining to road and roadside design. www.vti.se/nordic

Installation at "Take a look in the mirror" illustrating number of fatalities (in 2004).

Vehicles • Demonstration vehicles: In the project, safety measures in vehicles are demonstrated by offering test rides in vehicles equipped with ISA (Intelligent Speed Adaption), alcolock (the “breath alcohol ignition interlock device” - BAIID) and computerised logs that register driving patterns. The vehicles used have all been awarded five stars by EURONCAP. • CALM technology: The development and implementation of wireless commu-

nication between vehicles and a base station. In the demonstration project, CALM technology is used in conjunction with testing ISA in the demonstration vehicles.

• Alcolocks in public transport: Tests of alcolocks have from the autumn of 2004 been undertaken in one of the public transport companies in the town of Lillehammer. Gathering experience of the use of the equipment and the opinions of users are key issues.

Euroroute 6, central line/visual central reserve.

Road users and control The project comprises three component projects/packages of measures implemented under the auspices of the three main agents for traffic safety in Norway: The police, The Norwegian Council for Road Safety (Trygg Trafikk) and the Norwegian Public Roads Administration. The activities are based on recommendations in the “National Plan of Action for Road Traffic Safety 2002-2011”. The police bears the main responsibility for control/monitoring, Trygg Trafikk for training measures targeting children and young people, and the Norwegian Public Roads Administration for training motorists. Cooperation between these agencies is to be facilitated in order to improve coordination. Establishment of the communication centre “Take a look in the mirror” is incorporated as part of the measures targeting road users, and activities pertaining to road users are coordinated by the centre.

Activities among childrens in kindergarden.

Euroroute 6 at Hunderfossen north of Lillehammer.

Alcolocs in public transport.

More details on: www.nullvisjonen.no Project manager: Anders Godal Holt e-mail: anders-godal.holt@vegvesen.no

ALL PHOTOS: STEINAR SVENSBAKK

• Measures targeting Euroroute 6 The main focus is directed at motorists since pedestrians and cyclists only use this road to a limited extent.

- Central barriers/narrow four lane road (width 16 m) - Improved winter operation - Automatic traffic surveillance, including measurement of average speed - Central line/visual central reserve • Measures targeting other parts of the road network Along this part of the road network the main focus is directed at simple measures that can provide a better correspondence between the speed limit stated on road signs and the motorists’ choice of driving speed. Particular emphasis is given to measures that can improve conditions for pedestrians and cyclists, such as: The construction of a 2,5 km footpath/bicycle lane along County Road No. 312, lowering the speed limit to 30 kph in streets with many pedestrians, reducing driving speeds through the use of speed bumps, narrowing the driving lanes and achieving more orderly street parking in the town of Lillehammer and narrowing the driving lanes and increasing the width of the road shoulders on parts of the road network.

During the project period, testing of suggestions for new, simple measures that appear during the process will be facilitated.

Demonstration vehicles.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Public Transport Packages of Measures: Lessons Learned from Combined Public Transport Experiments in Norway During the period 1996-2000, the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications granted 11 million to 18 combined public transport experiments. With the addition of local funding the total investment in public transport was 35 million. Here, we present some main findings and lessons learned from the joint evaluations of the experiments.

he public transport experiments represent a learning process in which exchange of experience and the information flow are important elements. A standardised and common evaluation procedure was developed in order to facilitate comparison of the effects of the different types of projects, and to draw general conclusions from the different areas.

The main objective of the majority of the experiments in urban areas was to achieve more efficient public transport services for passengers and companies as well as to increase the number of passengers.

The evaluation scheme focused on methods which can provide insight into these issues.

The standardised evaluation scheme, i.e. the minimum requirement of the local evaluations, has been developed primarily for experiments in urban areas. It is a relatively comprehensive evaluation and consists of the following sources of data, which has been pooled in the common evaluation of the schemes: • Travel survey with panel selection • User survey, before and after • Zone data • Patronage data.

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Nine per cent patronage increase On average the number of passengers has increased by 6 per cent. Corrected for fare 16 | NORDIC NO. 1 2006

increases, the passenger development would be positive in all the urban areas with an average increase of 9 per cent. In one area, which despite a major fare increase had a positive passenger development, the passenger growth would probably have been 24 per cent if the fare rise had not coincided with the service improvements.

22 per cent of public transport users travel more often, and younger people do so to a greater extent than others. At the same time, people who initially travelled frequently, i.e. more than two days a week, state that they have increased their use of the bus. In other words, the measures have targeted the frequent users, and allowed them to become even more frequent passengers.

Increased competition from cars Half of public transport users with a driving licence and car in their household stated that they could have used the car on the journey in question. A competitive public transport service and restrictions on parking and driving in the cities appear therefore to be major factors contributing to increased use of public transport among passengers with car availability.

Around 30 per cent of passengers compete for the household’s car(s), and one of their main reasons for travelling by public

transport is that ’the car was being used by someone else’. Thus there is reason to assume that a relatively high proportion of them would have used the car if it were available.

At the same time, competition for the family car has been reduced during the experiment period. Passengers have, to a greater extent, a car available when they want to, and thus public transport becomes more exposed to competition.

It is easier to lose passengers than to attract new ones There is a clear asymmetry between the effects of improved and reduced public transport service levels. The negative effects of reduced service levels are greater for almost all quality aspects. The effect of deteriorated service levels are around three times higher than improved service levels. In other words, it is far easier to lose passengers than to attract new ones.

A “balanced” restructuring of the service, i.e. where similar numbers of passengers experience improved and reduced service levels, will in fact result in a significant loss of passengers. It is therefore primarily through redistribution and targeting of the measures towards major passenger groups that these experiments have been successful. "There and back are not the same distance", at least if we measure the effect on www.vti.se/nordic

The policy package in Kristiansand led to the introduction of a bus metro, where bus routes are timed so that the main route has a high frequency and regular departures to many of the city’s work places, services and schools.

passenger numbers. One should therefore be extremely cautious not to introduce services which will probably be removed when the test period is over.

A deeper analysis of this asymmetry reveals that it is not the passengers’ evaluations of improvements and deterioration that are different. On the contrary, it is their opportunities to change their trip frequency which differ, i.e. there are stronger barriers to increase than to reduce bus use.

Synergy effects The urban areas which implemented the most comprehensive and targeted measures have had the strongest passenger increase.

Knowledge of and attitudes towards public transport influence the effect of the experiments. An increased emphasis on an improved service, which can provide better

knowledge of the service and more satisfied passengers, will provide a better basis for further improvements. However, what will dampen this effect is the fact that more passengers will reach a "ceiling" in their bus use. Those who travel by public transport on a daily basis to and from work will have a limited potential for increase in their bus use. This is even so for significant service improvements.

PHOTO: HARALD AAS

Sources Katrine Næss Kjørstad and Bård Norheim (2005) Lessons learned from combined public transport experiments in Norway. TØI report 810/2005 with English summary.

Bård Norheim and Katrine Næss Kjørstad (2004) Public transport packages of measures 19962000. Passengers’ evaluation of service improvements and effect on trip frequency. TØI report 736/2004. With English summary.

Nils Fearnley and Åse Nossum (2004) Public transport packages of measures 1996-2000.

Economic evaluations. TØI report 738/2004. With English summary.

Alberte Ruud (2005) Packages of public transport measures 1996-2000. The effect of information measures. TØI report 774/2005. With English summary.

Katrine Næss Kjørstad and Bård Norheim (2005) Combined public transport experiments 19962000. The citizens’ evaluations of the measures and effects on mode choice. TØI report 794/2005. With English summary.

All TØI reports are available on www.toi.no

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PUBLIC TRANSPORT

VTI Is Making a Concentrated Effort in Public Transport VTI is engaged on broad based work in the field of public transport with a number of interesting research and consultancy projects. We have also started new research and development projects which have the potential to strengthen the competitiveness of public transport.

ublic transport is a fundamental community service. Good public transport makes for greater welfare, a stronger macroeconomy, increased accessibility, better environment and enhanced traffic safety.

Public transport is also a strategic mode that is of great importance for regional development. We at VTI have now concentrated our expertise to give our clients the best possible support in developing public transport.

Successful development of public transport must be based on knowledge. The work of VTI comprises both research and consultancy inputs, and we have all the knowledge that is required. Our areas of expertise largely complement one another through natural relationships that offer the possibilities of development. This means that we make use of knowledge and experiences from the other areas of expertise at VTI for the development of public transport. In the following, you can read about some of the ongoing VTI projects associated with public transport.

TramTrain – Innovative public transport Projects concerning the TramTrain have the aim of describing and analysing whether, and how, a regional transport system based on TramTrain can be instrumental in creating a better functioning transport system in Swedish towns and regions. The meaning of the name TramTrain is that the trams are operated not only in towns but can also run on the ordinary railway net-

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PHOTO: STAFFAN GUSTAVSSON, REDAKTA

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Bengt Stålner, coordinator for public transport research at VTI.

work. This is possible because the propulsion and safety equipment of the vehicle functions in both environments. The great advantage for travellers is that there are fewer interchanges. Today, people who commute by train often have to change to a bus or tram when they arrive at the central stations of the different towns. With a TramTrain they would be able to continue without changing, with faster and more comfortable journeys as a result.

The intention is that the transport system should join towns and villages and should create the basis for an expanded labour market, regional enlargement and economic growth. The project is conducted as a case study of broad focus in Östergötland, Sweden. In this project, VTI is collaborating with several other consultants and researchers in the field of transport. In

addition, a network of local and regional partners is also participating. The project is to result in a concrete design proposal in preparation for a future introduction of a TramTrain system. Some of the expected effects are greater integration in the labour market, a sales market in retail trade that encompasses the entire region, training and the production of other services. Trial runs will be made in May 2006.

School transport Many schoolchildren are using school transport to and from school on a daily basis. Every year, several children are killed in conjunction with journeys on school transport. There are important gaps in knowledge that must be plugged to make school transport safer and more secure. In recent years, VTI has carried out research with the focus on both the safety and security of children who travel by school transport and the concessionary travel service.

School transport is a matter not only of safety but also security for the children and their parents. One essential condition for improving the safety and security of children who travel by school transport and concessionary travel service is that the scope of accidents related to school transport should be monitored. This is essential for a number of reasons, not least for following up measures that have been taken, but also to find out which measures may be expected to be most successful. www.vti.se/nordic

Security in the transport system Security is an important societal issue both nationally and internationally. As regards the traffic environment, it is evident that it is not only traffic as such that creates insecurity but that the environment itself and other people are also significant factors in creating insecurity.

It is only the feeling of insecurity in the traffic system that can alter people’s habits and cause them to stop moving about in public environments and to stop using public transport. Insecurity can also have the effect that people do not travel or that they travel in a way that is different from what would be their first choice. The result of this may be that the social pattern in the neighbourhood is changed, contacts are weakened, the customer base of shops alters, the catchment areas of schools are changed, or the location of service is affected. In the long term, these effects may be serious.

PHOTO: BENGT ARNE IGNELL, REDAKTA

Some of the concrete measures that can be taken with regard to roads and vehicles is to lay down criteria for what are safe boarding and alighting points, and also to stipulate that they must be sited in such a way that the safety and security of children can be guaranteed. Stops must also be clearly signposted so that traffic passing by is made aware that children may be on their way to and from the stop, and the visibility of the bus itself must also improved.

Carl Magnus Berglund, VTI, has been engaged in the study “Security in the transport systems of large cities – opportunities to identify cost effective measures”. The study analyses how a monetary value can be put on measures to enhance security, so that as large improvements in security as possible can be achieved at the lowest possible cost. Carl Magnus considers, inter alia, that greater knowledge of what it is that creates feelings of insecurity – how strong and how widespread these feelings are – is an essential prerequisite for assessing the cost effectiveness of different measures.

Contact Information: Public transport Bengt Stålner, bengt.stalner@vti.se TramTrain Ragnar Hedström, ragnar.hedstrom@vti.se Security in the transport systems of large cities Carl-Magnus Berglund, carl-magnus.berglund@vti.se School transport Anna Anund, anna.anund@vti.se www.vti.se/publictransport

Magdalena Green, VTI, Sweden NORDIC NO. 1 2006 | 19

PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Competitive Tendering in Norwegian Public Transport Competitive tendering of local public transport services has been allowed in Norway since 1994, and its use is increasing. A recent report analyses the effect of competitive tendering. This article focuses on the findings with respect to operating cost and subsidies paid.

ompetitive tendering is a well established practice for procurement of public transport services in several countries. Since 1994 the county councils in Norway have been allowed to use competitive tenders for the procurement of local bus services. Tendering as a form of purchase has been adopted to varying degrees by the different counties.

This article looks in particular at the cost and subsidy savings of competitive tendering. It is based on a recent evaluation of competitive tendering in Norwegian local bus transport, where analyses of quantitative data over a 15 year period are combined with qualitative assessments of different contractual arrangements both for tendered services and for services not tendered as a control group.

Evidence from other Scandinavian countries supports the general view that competitive tendering is associated with cost savings for the procuring body, at least in the short run. In the longer run, however, the efficiency gains seem to have halted in Sweden and Denmark, and recent data indicate little further reduction in unit costs in later rounds of tendering.

Costs are nevertheless still below their pretendering levels, even though they encompass higher service standards.

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Norwegian setting As opposed to their Scandinavian partners, previously dominated by public operators 20 | NORDIC NO. 1 2006

running on negotiated gross cost contracts, Norway has a tradition for procurement through net cost contracts, often combined with private or semi-private (publicly owned) operators. Consequently, there is no prominent privatisation process running parallel to the introduction of competitive tendering in Norway, since the operators to a large degree already were private before tendering was introduced. Any efficiency gains accruing from privatisation as a side-effect of competitive tendering will not, therefore, materialise in Norway.

The 1994 directive, together with reduced state funds for transport and communication purposes, brought about a rising use of competitive tendering during the late 1990s. In 2005, 26 per cent of all route production in Norway was procured on the basis of tendered contracts, covering

around 40 per cent of all passengers.

Nevertheless, negotiated contracts still constitute the majority of all local bus contracts in Norway.

A reduction in the number of bids per tender would indicate monopolisation, or that the players are dividing up the country between them. The development in number of bidders per bid is therefore a key indicator for how well the competition works. In Norway, the average number of bidders per tender during the entire period from 1994 is around five. There has been a development from the earlier rounds with large variations to a more stable situation today. The number of bids for the various tenders has remained between three and five in recent years in the majority of cases. So far, therefore, the competition seems to work well.

Proportion of route production subject to competitive tendering in Norway.

The number of bidders per tender has been relatively stable.

www.vti.se/nordic

Tenders have reduced costs and subsidies Cost and subsidy levels fell in the 1990s until about 1997/8. Then costs and in particular subsidy levels increased dramatically till around 2000 when the curves flatten off. It is evident that the developments in subsidy payments follow the developments in costs. However, the fluctuations in subsidy payments are significantly larger than the variations in costs. This is partly due to the fact that subsidies typically are about 30 per cent of costs, making changes in subsidies related to changes in costs by a factor of three.

PHOTOS.COM

Developments in public transport subsidies and cost.

1991=1,00.

Econometric models have been estimated in order to establish the isolated effects of competitive tendering on costs and subsidy levels. It is found that competitive tendering contributes to a reduction in both costs and subsidies. The calculations show that competitive tendering reduces opera-

ting costs by approximately a tenth. A move from no competitive tendering to full competitive tendering will provide cost savings of approximately 10 per cent.

Regarding the effects on subsidy levels, the model indicates that a one percentage point increase in tendering reduces the need for subsidies by 0.7 per cent. Given the fact that subsidies only cover a fraction of the costs (typically a third) and that the county councils have good opportunities to reap the majority of the cost saving in connection with tenders, tenders have a greater effect on the level of subsidises than on costs.

This means that tenders have resulted in more cost-effective production, and that the savings have to a large extent been

taken out in the form reduced subsidies rather than improved service levels.

Compared with international experience, the cost saving effect from competitive tendering in Norway is on the lower scale.

The result is primarily due to the fact that the industry had improved the effectiveness substantially already before competitive tendering was introduced.

Source: J-T Bekken, F Longva, N Fearnley, E Frøysadal and O Osland (2006) Procurement and contracts for local bus services. TĂ˜I report 819/2006 in Norwegian with English summary. Available on www.toi.no

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PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Multimodal Traffic Information Architecture Multimodal traffic information architecture is described within the R&D programme (AINO) of the Ministry of Transport and Communications Finland. The architecture describes the service processes for transport and public transport networks and for travellers.

he Finnish National ITS Architecture, TelemArk, has been continually developed since 1998. The multimodal traffic information architecture was defined to make it consistent with European KAREN architecture. The results of similar architectures and projects such as TRIDENT, EU-SPIRIT, ARKTRANS and U.S. ITS Architecture were also taken into consideration. The architecture was carried out by applying the Finnish architecture method.

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Process areas Transport network and public transport processes produce and use real-time data, whereas the traveller process mostly consumes data. In order to ensure proper information flows between processes, information services are needed to collect data, refine it and deliver information between processes. The traveller process requires information from all public transport modes and relevant transport networks in order to make intelligent decisions.

Figure 2 - Real-time multimodal information flows between process areas.

Transport networks process area In the transport networks process area, realtime vehicle monitoring data is used for transport network maintenance, development, monitoring, control, and incident management. Rail transport requires more accurate transport monitoring and control than road and waterborne transport. This is because in rail transport, automated processes and advanced safety systems set stricter requirements for monitoring and control. For the time being, transport network incident management for different transport modes in Finland is carried out with only minor multimodal aspects.

Figure 1 – Multimodal Traffic Information Architecture augments the national telematics architecture with a view of real-time and multimodal information.

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Public transport process area In the public transport process area, realtime vehicle monitoring data can be used www.vti.se/nordic

for transport and traveller planning purposes. The same process descriptions can be used when planning real-time services for schedule-based and demand-responsive public transport in congested and uncongested conditions. The real-time monitoring data will enable public transport operators to plan the collaboration of different transport modes more accurately, because they are aware of the locations of the vehicles.

This is very useful e.g. in management of transfers between transport modes and in incident situations. Demand-responsive transport and taxi centres and terminal operators will also be able to plan their operations better, since they are aware of fleet locations in real time.

The process description enables linking of departures of different transport modes as multimodal traffic chains. The traffic chain can start e.g. as a demand-responsive transport, continue as a bus or train trip, and end as a local transport trip. It can also start as a private car trip and continue with public transport such as bus, train, underground and tram. When the traffic chain is between two cities, it can consist of ship, flight, train, and bus trips. The journey between two cities requires the whole traffic chain to be planned in advance and verified or planned again during the trip if necessary. The accuracy of trip planning can be improved with traffic predictions based on real-time data.

The most significant task is to collect real-time data from congested areas such as city centres and long distance transport links between cities. In uncongested areas there is a need to develop more economical systems for collecting real-time monitoring data.

Fluent transport chains from origins to destinations may improve the competitiveness of public transport and increase the number of passengers who use it. However, assessment of the objective benefits of realtime data requires that real life impacts are

Figure 3 – Traveller process. The processes producing or using real-time information are emphasised.

Architecture solutions.

evaluated with the help of scientific evaluation frameworks.

should be transmitted using separate services.

Traveller process area The architecture describes the journey as a multimodal travel chain. The traveller is faced with multiple decision points both before and during the journey, and diverse information is needed to support his or her decision-making. Before the journey, the traveller has to recognise the need for travelling and to plan the journey including choice of access, main and egress mode and their variations. Thus real-time multimodal transport planning and information systems are needed. During the journey the traveller needs information on the planned or compensatory transport chains. Hence real-time travel planning and information services to support the multimodal transport chain are needed.

Real-time road transport route planning Real-time road transport route planning enables the collection, modelling and presentation of real-time traffic, traffic conditions and maintenance data. Decentralised basic data from the systems of different players should be used, as well as new technologies such as FCD. Traffic situation data is collected as part of a centralised national solution that further transmits data to the transport situation modelling service. Realtime route planning enables modelled traffic and traffic conditions data, as well as incident data, to be taken into account as part of the route planning.

Prediction of transport and traffic situation in metropolitan area Prediction of a traffic situation in the metropolitan area requires the collection of real-time traffic information from transport networks. Collection of real-time data of traffic conditions is decentralised. The real-time data is transmitted to the central service of the urban area that is modelling the traffic situation. Traditional systems should be augmented by Floating Car Data (FCD) from both public and private vehicles. Data from mobile location services and from traffic signals should also be utilised.

Furthermore, video feed and still camera pictures collected by different players

Real-time public transport travel planning Data pools are the most important elements when offering real-time travel planning services for public transport.

Implementation of data pools requires definition of multimodal data models, libraries and standard messages in order to ensure collaboration of systems by different players. Further, the data pools and data specification implementation of services requires real-time data on locations of vehicles.

Mikko Lehtonen and Risto Ă–Ăśrni, VTT, Finland Report in Finnish http://www.aino.info/julkaisut/ 5_palvelup/aino20_2005.pdf

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Do Japanese Cars Come with a Japanese Pavement?

The Japanese car industry has learned from the European car industry and is now one of the world’s leading producers of high technology cars. In the fight against noise, Europe has turned to Japan to see if similar developments in pavement technology will help decrease the traffic noise from European pavements.

n 14-18 November 2005, staff from the Danish Road Institute (DRI) and the Road and Hydraulic Engineering Institute (DWW) in the Netherlands carried out a scanning tour to Japan in order to obtain the latest experiences with the use and maintenance of porous pavements in Japan as well as new concepts and ideas in the field of noise abatement. The main objectives of the scanning tour were to collect information on clogging and ravelling of porous pavements and modified bitumen used for porous pavements. The information obtained is an important input to the research and development work in Denmark and the Netherlands for improving the acoustical and structural durability of noise reducing pavements.

Japan is a densely populated country with an intensively built-up road infrastructure. Due to a general lack of vacant land, highways and main roads are often constructed very close to urban and residential areas. This creates problems with noise from road traffic and therefore noise abatement and research and development in new and improved technologies that may reduce noise effectively have a high priority in Japan.

Porous pavements are used on both highways and urban roads in Japan. There is a number of reasons for using porous pavements in Japan:

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1. To improve traffic safety by improving skid resistance.

2. To improve traffic safety and comfort for drivers and pedestrians in rainy periods by leading the water from the pavement surface thereby reducing splash and spray.

3. To reduce the risk of flooding in periods with heavy rainfall by leading water from the pavement surface to the gullies and to the subbase.

4. To improve the microclimate in cities during night time by retaining rain giving a slower evaporation of water from the road surface and thereby reducing the temperature.

5. To reduce traffic noise.

Porous pavements are widely used in Japan, both on highways and in urban areas. Today, the total area of porous pavements is 50 million m2 and it is still increasing. On toll roads, more than 50 per cent of the pavement is porous. The structural durability of porous pavements in Japan is generally the same as the durability of dense graded asphalt mixes. In the warm regions, the structural durability of porous pavements is 10 years or more, and in the cold regions 7–10 years. Structural damage of porous asphalt is a serious problem in cold regions. Snow removal operations by snowploughs cause severe damage in the porous asphalt and rutting and ravelling

occur after a few years. This has led to use of highly viscous SBS modified binders in the cold regions and to the development of a ‘hybrid’ pavement with a dense structure and an open surface texture.

Most pavements are single layer pavements with 13 mm maximum aggregate size, 20 per cent built-in air voids and high viscosity 8 per cent SBS modified bitumen.

In cold regions, pavements with 17 per cent built-in air voids are constructed.

Porous pavements are used in urban areas even at intersections and bus stops, and on highways in the countryside. At some intersections, a special epoxy based surface treatment is applied in order to improve durability. Tests with two layer porous pavements started in 1998 and they are mainly used on urban roads. The driving speed is in general low (below 50–60 km/h in urban areas and 100 km/h on highways).

The application of two layer porous pavements in one application as a warm in warm process is widely used in Japan. A compact machine is produced by the WIRTGEN Company in Japan and a similar but larger machine is manufactured by the BAM Company in Europe. The integration of the top and the bottom layer in one laying process improves the durability of the pavement and construction time, costs and disruption to road users are reduced significantly.

In Japan, performance based specificawww.vti.se/nordic

The scanning tour was part of the research work carried out in the “DRI-DWW noise abatement program” [1] which is a joint research program carried out by the Dutch (DWW) and the Danish (DRI) road research institutes in the period from 2004 to 2007. The program is a part of the Dutch Innovation Program on Noise [2], also called the IPG research program. The scanning tour has been organised by DRI and the Public Works Research Institute in Japan (PWRI). An intensive program including meetings with Japanese experts as well as visits to test sites and laboratories was planned by PWRI. A report from the scanning tour is available on www.roadinstitute.dk tion contracts include tire/pavement noise as a performance indicator. The tire/road noise is measured after paving and one year later using a special Japanese CPXmethod (close proximity method). Shortly after the laying, the noise level measured must not exceed 89 dB and after one year 90 dB. The average level for new single layer porous pavements was 88.6 dB, and for new two layers porous pavements 88.1 dB. As a reference, a 13 mm maximum aggregate size dense asphalt concrete is usually used. For single and two layer porous pavements, the noise reduction was 2-5 dB for trucks and 4-7 dB for passenger cars. Results from long-term measurements have shown that traffic noise from the porous pavements increases by around 4 dB over a five-years period.

New cleaning strategies have been developed with cleaning at higher speed (10-20 km/h) and more frequent cleaning (up to once a week). The vacuum cleaning machines use high pressure water and air pressure curtains or only high pressure air. The first generation machines are referred to as function recovery machines as they aim at recovering the function of a clogged porous pavement. The new cleaning machines are referred to as function maintenance machines as they aim at maintaining the function of the pavement at all times.

Porous elastic pavements are under

development and full scale testing in Japan. The aggregate used is pure rubber material. These pavements are very effective noise reducing pavements, but the price is high and an acceptable lifetime has still to be proven. The noise reduction for passenger cars was 7–11 dB and 5–8 dB for trucks compared to a dense asphalt concrete. It is believed that further developments could lead to a lifetime of 5–10 years. The detailed recipes are confidential and are not published.

In Japan, new futuristic approaches are under development such as: • Noise barriers with active noise control • New Air Void Assessment Technology • Vehicles with built-in active noise control towards tire/road noise.

The scanning tour has demonstrated new technologies which improve the effect and durability of porous pavements. The use of high viscous SBS modified binders and other special binders improving structural durability of porous pavements and reducing ravelling and the new Japanese cleaning strategies with better cleaning machines, cleaning at higher speed (10–20 km/h), and more frequent cleaning are considered beneficial and ought to be implemented in Europe.

After all, we cannot expect Japanese cars to come with a Japanese pavement. We have to implement the technologies ourselves.

Carsten B. Nielsen, VD, Denmark.

The members of the joint delegation were: 1. Leader of the delegation, Dr. Rob Hofman (DWW) R.Hofman@DWW.RWS.MinVenW.NL 2. Deputy Director Hans Ertman Larsen (DRI), hje@vd.dk 3. Senior researcher Hans Bendtsen (DRI), hbe@vd.dk 4. Senior researcher Bent Andersen (DRI), bea@vd.dk 5. Senior researcher Carsten Bredahl Nielsen (DRI), can@vd.dk [1] The DRI-DWW Noise Abatement Program - Project description. Note 24, 2005. Danish Road Institute, Road Directorate.

[2] Noise Innovation Program. Road Traffic. (The IPG programme). DWW report 2002-073.

Contact: Dr. Carsten B. Nielsen can@vd.dk www.vd.dk

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Female Crash Test Dummy May Improve Protection in Traffic VTI has started work on determining the dynamic characteristics of an average woman. These will be used in developing the first crash test dummy in the world that is based on an average woman. Existing dummies have been developed with reference to an average male. he fact that there is no model of an average woman at present may impose limitations on how well existing crash test dummies can evaluate the protection provided by different traffic safety solutions developed for women. – A crash test dummy that represents an average woman can for the first time enable the automotive industry to design traffic safety solutions for both average men and women. With a dummy that represents the part of the population that sustains the most injury, we will have a measuring tool that makes it possible to evaluate the effect of different protective systems and to develop vehicle safety systems for rear end collisions that are designed for both men and women, says Astrid Linder, research leader at VTI. If men had had the greatest risk of

PHOTO: STAFFAN GUSTAVSSON, REDAKTA

PHOTO: STAFFAN GUSTAVSSON, REDAKTA

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Astrid Linder, research leder at VTI.

26 | NORDIC NO. 1 2006

being injured, there might have been reason to have only a male model. In rear end collisions, the risk of a woman sustaining neck injuries, i.e. whiplash injuries, is twice that of a man.

The results of the project will make a significant contribution to basic biomechanical research. For the first time, the geometric design and dynamic characteristics will be determined for a crash test dummy based on an average woman.

The project is financed by Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems, VINNOVA, and developed together with Chalmers University of Technology.

Michael HĂśglund, VTI, Sweden For further information, contact Astrid Linder, astrid.linder@vti.se

www.vti.se/nordic

Praise for the Norwegian Roads Recycling R&D Program The staff members of The Norwegian Roads Recycling R&D Program (2002–2005) were praised by many participants of the research program’s final seminar. – Many shared the view that the project had created value for the construction sector and that the Public Roads Administration had changed from being an obstacle to being an engine for recycling.

he Technology Department of the Norwegian Road Directory was commended for taking a national responsibility and for taking the initiative. The recycling program produced technical and regulatory documents, technical documentation from full scale testing of recycled materials in demonstration projects, and was noticeable both nationally and internationally.

The project also contributed to bringing the companies that work with recycling into focus.

The Norwegian Roads R&D Program was also commended for its contribution to initiation of cultural change and reduction of scepticism to the use of recycled materials. Representatives of the construction industry said the project exceeded all their expectations.

Testing and providing technical documentation may prove to be the easy part.

The Norwegian construction market has not readily accepted recycled building materials. In many cases high costs of transportation are the reason for good recycled materials being used for low-quality purposes in near by locations. The knowledge attained in the Recycling R&D Program needs to find its place in contract documents for new road construction projects, preferably in the form of more explicit requirements concerning the use of recycled instead of natural resources.

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PHOTO: HENRIETTE E. BUSTERUD, NPRA

PHOTO: HENRIETTE E. BUSTERUD, NPRA

Synnøve A. Myren and project manager Gordana Petkovic from The Norwegian Roads Recycling R&D Program in recycled T-shirts “designed” for the final seminar of the project.

Project manager, Gordana Petkovic, with recycled concrete.

Read more on: http://www.gjenbruksprosjektet.net/

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Soil Stabilisation with Lime for Road Construction In Denmark, lime-stabilisation of subgrade soils has not been used for many years on the overall road network. The Danish Road Directorate is now involved in efforts to re-introduce this method in Danish road construction. If the method proves successful – as it seems to be at present – there are large potentials for gains such as savings of natural resources, more durable roads and reduced environmental load.

oad construction on weak soils with poor bearing capacity is in Denmark normally solved by excavation and replacement with better quality materials. This results in subbase layers with rather large thicknesses and total pavement thickness above the subgrade of up to 110–120 cm.

When stabilising wet clayey soils with pulverized quicklime it is possible to obtain a considerable increase in the bearing capacity. Thus, the total pavement thickness can be reduced considerably. The saving of raw materials is obtained by a reduction of the thickness of the frost protection layer, so that smaller amounts of sand and gravel are used.

The total environmental load is reduced, as the requirement for excavation and transportation of materials is lowered.

Thus, there is a reduction in CO2 emissions and wear on the roads due to heavy truck traffic.

Also Economic savings are obtained also by the reduced requirement of excavation, transportation and consumption of primary raw materials. These savings will in most cases be considerably greater than the cost of lime stabilisation.

Further it is estimated that the increased bearing capacity of the subgrade will result in better durability of the road and as such

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28 | NORDIC NO. 1 2006

also reduce the longterm maintenance costs.

The Danish Road Directorate is therefore interested in methods which can strengthen “soft” clayey soils, and has decided to carry out two trials with limestabilization in order to examine the method in more detail. The two trials are made in connection with new motorway sections in different parts of the country. The common factor in the two sections is that both have a

clayey or silty subgrade with low bearing capacity. This would normally imply that large subbase layers would be necessary.

The trial programme The following assumptions were agreed on for the trial sections: • The total pavement thickness should be reduced from 110 cm to 80 cm.

• The E-modulus of the limestabilized

Figure 2: Average surface moduli measured with LWD before and after lime stabilisation.

www.vti.se/nordic

Fig. 1: Lime stabilisation of subgrade

subgrade should be increased from starting values of 10–20 MPa to a minimum of 45 MPa. • The lime-stabilized layer should have a minimum thickness of 40 cm.

• Results from laboratory testing on soil types from the sections form the basis for the amount of quicklime to be added and the number of test areas.

• The weather should be dry while the lime-stabilization takes place.

• The lime should not be spread if it is very windy.

Short sections were chosen on the two different motorway stretchres. Based on the laboratory testing, lime percentages of 2 per cent and 4 per cent were chosen for the two sections. The stabilisation process was performed in the summer and autumn of 2005. The lime was spread on the surface and mixed, with a large Wirtgen reclaimer (Figure 1). After mixing, the stabilised material was compact with a steel drum roller, levelled with a grader, and finally roller compacted again.

The effect of the stabilisation process was monitored by measuring the surface modulus with a Light Weight Deflectometer before and at different intervals after stabilisation.

Results of the test The average surface moduli for a number of measuring points on both sections are illustrated in Figure 2. These results clearly show that the bearing capacity of both subgrades have been substantially increased after lime-stabilisation. Due to the different soil characteristics, the 2per cent lime added at section 2 resulted in higher surface moduli than what was achieved with 4 per cent lime at section 1. In both cases, the results showed, that poor subgrade soils with initial surface moduli of 10–20 MPa by lime-stabilisation can be improved to surface moduli well above the required 45 MPa. Conclusion These first results indicate that a considerable increase in the bearing capacity of

the subgrade can be achieved by lime-stabilization of clayey and silty soils.

Even very soft soils with high water contents and very low bearing capacity could be lime-stabilized in the test, so that a bearing capacity was obtained after 4–5 weeks which was considerably greater than the required 45 MPa. Not all problems have been solved in this test, especially problems with equipment which sinks into the soft soils; however, it can be concluded that lime stabilisation of clayey and silty soils in motorway construction seems to be a method with a good future potential also in Denmark.

For further information, Finn Thøgersen (fit@vd.dk) and Tony K. Andersen (tka@vd.dk)

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Tunnel Investigation and Groundwater Control This report presents, in a condensed form, the results from a research programme on tunnel investigations and ground water control. Although the starting point was related to Norwegian conditions, the problems are the same elsewhere and the findings generally applicable.

he results from this programme have provided new information about methods to improve tunnel planning and construction, and is especially important to areas where lowering of the groundwater table may cause severe damage to the surface and man-made structures.

The programme was divided into three projects:

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Environmental concerns The vulnerability of the environment, especially related to changes in the groundwater table caused by the tunnel construction, is evaluated with the aim to develop methods to quantify accepted levels of leakage into a tunnel. Procedures and guidelines for various conditions are presented.

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PHOTO: THORBJĂ˜RN CHR. RISAN

Investigation methods New geological and geophysical methods were tested for their potential to locate the direction of joints and weakness zones at depth, and the leakage potential, as well as efficient mapping of regional structures.

The methods were found to be valuable supplements to traditional procedures.

Completed tunnels were studied in order to find any relations between investigation efforts and problems during excavation, with the aim to establish the type and appropriate amount of ground investigation on a given tunnel project.

Pregrouting techniques A specific grouting technique and strategy utilizing thick cement grout is developed.

This technique and strategy is a result of evaluation of grouting performances in several recently built tunnels, and has proven to be efficient and give better control on the amount of water draining into a tunnel.

Norwegian Public Roads Administration.

Publication nr 107 (ISSN 1504-5064) Authors: Mona Lindstrøm, e-mail: mona.lindstrom@vegvesen.no and Alf Kveen, e-mail: alf.kveen@vegvesen.no

www.vti.se/nordic

ANNOTATED REPORTS

Condition and Development of the National Highways Title: "Statsvejnettet. Oversigt over tilstand og udvikling." Report 301, December 2005.

Author: Flemming Clausen Series: Report No. 301 (http://www.vejdirektoratet.dk/publikationer/VDrap301/index.htm) Language: Danish

The Road Directorate has published a report in Danish describing the condition and development of the National Highways in Denmark for the year 2004. The report deals with themes regarding traffic volumes, transport quality, road and bridge maintenance conditions, service facilities, road safety, intelligent transport systems, environmental conditions and road accounts.

The report consists of maps, graphs, tables and text, which aim to give the reader a general overview of the present condition and development of the national highway network. The report is also available in electronic form (HTML and PDF) from the Danish Road Directorate´s web site.

km/h zones, road humps, roundabouts, restrictions on traffic in special periods, speed control etc. are used on many urban roads in Europe. The first part is focused on analysing the relations between speed and noise. The effects of uneven driving pattern with accelerations and braking are included. This is analysed on the background of prediction models like the Nordic Method and the Harmonoise method. The second part is a comprehensive European literature survey to find and compile existing relevant knowledge. On this background the final results and recommendations for road administrators are developed.

Rolling Resistance, Fuel Consumption and Emission Title: Rolling Resistance, Fuel Consumption and Emission - a Literature Review Authors: Hans Bendtsen Series: Technical note 23 (http://www.vejdirektoratet.dk/publikationer/VInot23/index.htm) Language: English

Noise Reducing Pavements Title: Traffic Management and Noise Reducing Pavements. Recommendations on Additional Noise Reducing Measures Authors: Hans Bendtsen, Jürgen Haberl, Johan Litzka, Ernest Pucher, Ulf Sandberg, Greg Watts Series: Report 137 (http://www.vejdirektoratet.dk/publikationer/VIrap 137/index.htm) Language: English

This report is produced as Deliverable 12 “Recommendations on additional Noise Reducing Measures” - of the EU research project SILVIA. The goal is to investigate traffic management measures in order to highlight their capacity for noise control and to evaluate the possibilities and effects of combining traffic management measures with the use of noise reducing pavements especially in urban areas. Traffic management measures such as environmentally adapted “through” roads, 30

aim of the project to design a pavement, which has a better durability than the reference pavement evaluated by tests of laboratory produced materials. The greatest possible noise reduction should at the same time be maintained for the longest possible period.

The present report integrates several more detailed reports. In the report asphalt testing (in Danish) the durability of different mixes is assessed from laboratory testing, whereas the report mortar testing (in Danish) is a more detailed assessment and optimisation of the durability of the mixes and explains the results of the asphalt testing. A Dutch guide on design, laying and maintenance of drainage asphalt is translated into Danish and integrated in relevant sections of the present report after a rewriting and adaptation to Danish conditions.

Durability of Porous Asphalt Title: Durability of Porous Asphalt Authors: Carsten Bredahl Nielsen, Jørn Raaberg, Erik Nielsen Series: Report 139 (http://www.vejdirektoratet.dk/publikationer/VIrap 139/index.htm) Language: Danish with English abstract

Three Danish asphalt contractors applied in March 2000 for financial support from the Danish Environmental Protection Agency programme for cleaner technology to develop more durable drainage asphalt mixes. The reference of the project as regards durability is the drainage asphalt pavement, which has been carried out on Øster Søgade in Copenhagen. It is thus the

This note on rolling resistance is produced as a part of the Danish contribution to the SILVIA project. The SILVIA project is basically about issues related to noise reducing road surfaces. The theme for work package 3 is cost/benefit analysis. Topics like traffic safety, mobility and sustainability are included in this work package. Task 3.2 covers the topic of sustainability aspects of low noise road surfaces. This has been subdivided in to the themes of rolling resistance, fuel consumption and emissions, water pollution and the use of materials and recycling. This note is about the theme on rolling resistance, fuel consumption and emissions. The goal of this report is to investigate if the use of noise reducing pavements NORDIC NO. 1 2006 | 31

(in this case porous pavements) will change the fuel consumption and the emissions of the vehicles driving on the pavement. A systematic international literature survey has been conducted and the results are reported in this note.

When the rolling resistance coefficient is increased, the fuel consumption is also increased. It seems that the unevenness of pavements as well as the megatexture is the most important factor for determining the rolling resistance and by this the fuel consumption of different pavements. The macrotexture seems to be less important. No specific data for porous pavements and other noise reducing pavements have been retrieved. When noise reducing pavements are designed it is basically the macrostructure and the porosity that are optimized and these do not have a great influence on the rolling resistance. A first conservative conclusion is that porous pavements do not influence the rolling resistance and the fuel consumption if the porous pavement is evaluated against a dense pavement with the same maximum aggregate size.

Mechanistic Design of Semi-Rigid Pavements Title: Mechanistic Design of Semi-Rigid Pavements - An Incremental Approach Authors: Finn Thøgersen, Christian Busch, Anders Henrichsen Series: Report 138 (http://www.vejdirektoratet.dk/publikationer/VIrap 138/index.htm Language: Danish with English abstract

A number of semi-rigid pavements constructed in the 1970s in Denmark have shown superior performance, with limited reflective cracking and long life of the wearing courses. With this experience as background, an incremental-recursive deterioration model has been set up for cement bound base materials. The model was calibrated with data from full-scale test sections loaded with a Heavy Vehicle Simulator 32 | NORDIC NO. 1 2006

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ANNOTATED REPORTS

and further validated with data from Danish motorway sections. Laboratory tests were performed in order to investigate the effect of various mix design parameters for cement bound mixtures.

Responsibility for Traffic Safety on the Road Transport Chain – Management of Traffic Safety Title: Responsibility for Traffic Safety on the Road Transport Chain – Management of Traffic Safety Authors: Juha Tapio, Jarkko Lehtinen, Ari Sirkiä, Harri Peltola, Raine Hautala Series: Ministry of Transport and Communications, LINTU Reports 2/2005 http://www.lintu.info/lintu_TAKU.pdf Language: Finnish with English abstract

Order procedures and quality assurance systems used in Finnish road transport were examined in this study. Whole transport chains as well as single companies operating on transport chains were considered. The objective was to observe possible latent risks from the viewpoint of traffic safety. Proposals are given for improving order procedures, and suggestions are made for quality assurance systems that might contribute to traffic safety and divide the responsibilities for safety more equally among all parties involved in the transport chain.

Eighteen persons with practical experience on a strategic or operational level in

companies that operate in different roles in the transport chain in Finland, and two persons in Sweden were interviewed. A workshop was then held where initial results were presented to the interviewees.

Based on these measures the researchers make the following suggestions: The role of traffic safety in order procedures and quality assurance systems is not as important as it should be. At present, the client of the transport company determines the quality attributes for a given transport, and all other parties in the transport chain conform to the requirements. The client should also have a similar grip of the transport chain as regards traffic safety issues. The client should consider traffic safety as part of the strategic planning in a company, in the same way that transportrelated environmental issues are already considered in several companies.

Participants in the transport sector should establish a quality assurance system to help traffic safety management in the transport chain and in single companies operating in the chain. Impartial organisations should be nominated to maintain and develop the system and to audit transport operations in practice. Traffic safety should be included in corporate responsibility as well. Public interest in the traffic safety level of road transport could motivate clients of transport companies to actively insist on a better traffic safety level of transport operations in practice.

In an invitation for tenders, the precise requirements for the traffic safety level of transport companies should be described.

Detailed invitation for tenders creates commensurable offers. Acceptance of an offer should be based on total economic calculations, which means that also other attributes than cost should be taken into account.

www.vti.se/nordic

ANNOTATED REPORTS

Title: Pre-study on Road User Charging Systems Authors: Kristian Appel, Heli Mattila, Traficon Oy, Juha Tervonen, JT-Con, Jukka Räsänen, VTT Series: Publications of the Ministry of Transport and Communications 17/2006 Language: Finnish with English abstract

Road user charges have been collected in Europe and around the world for many years. User or congestion charges are applied not only for financing of transport infrastructure and its maintenance but also as a traffic management tool to reduce congestion and emissions, for access control to cities and as an environmental charge for heavy goods vehicles. In many countries user charges are an integral part of transport taxation policy and transport infrastructure financing. Road user charges are also an important element of European transport policy to ensure sustainability. The Commission aims at a situation where the costs of the infrastructure are mainly covered by the users. A road user charging system enables differentiation of the charges according to vehicle type, time and location of use.

The European Parliament and the Council have in 2004 given a Directive on interoperability of Road User Charging systems in Europe that also defines the technologies to be used for the on-board equipment: satellite positioning (GNSS), cellular networks (GSM + GPRS) or short range communication (DSRC 5,8 GHz).

According to international legislation onboard equipment can not be mandatory for foreign vehicles and therefore alternative ways of payment has to be offered. For reasons of equality the charge has to be the same regardless of the way of payment. For heavy goods vehicles also the so called Eurovignette Directive applies. This Directive is currently being amended.

The objectives of this pre-study were to describe the international legal framework

Barriers to the Use of Efficiency Assessment Tools in Road Safety Policy

and different possibilities of applying charges (including network and vehicles to be charged, type of charge, charging technologies and enforcement issues). Systems, studies and experiences in many countries (Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Hungary, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Czech Republic) are examined. Furthermore, various possibilities to respond to the changing conditions for transport taxation and charging systems are described from a Finnish point of view.

Title: Barriers to the use of efficiency assessment tools in road safety policy Authors: Rune Elvik and Knut Veisten TØI report no: 785/2005 Language: English Available on www.toi.no

Efficiency assessment tools, like cost-benefit analysis, have not been extensively used for the assessment of road safety measures.

Increased use of efficiency analysis in road safety policy will improve the selection of economically sensible measures. If these road safety measures are implemented the numbers of fatalities and injuries on European roads will most probably decrease. In this report the barriers to the use of efficiency assessment tools are identified.

More knowledge about the effect of road safety measures, more knowledge about what economic valuation implies and better dissemination of results from analyses can all help to reduce the barriers.

Effects of Speed Limit Changes on Speed and Accidents Title: Speed limit changes. Effects on speed and accidents Author: Arild Ragnøy TØI report no: 784/2005 Language: English Available on www.toi.no

In the autumn of 2001, speed limits were lowered from 90 km/h to 80 m/h and from 80 km/h to 70 km/h on hazardous road sections in Norway. These road sections had been identified as having a high number of fatal or serious injury accidents per kilometre of road. This report presents an evaluation of the effects of these changes in speed limits on speed and accidents.

The reduction from 80 km/h to 70 km/h had statistically significant impacts. Driving speed was reduced by between 2.1 and 4.1 km/h and the number of accidents was reduced by 14 per cent.

Targeted Competitive Tendering of Passenger Transport Title: Targeted Competitive Tendering of Passenger Transport Authors: Frode Longva, Oddgeir Osland, Jon Inge Lian, Claus Hedegaard Sørensen, Didier van de Velde TØI report no: 787/2005 Language: Norwegian with English summary Available on www.toi.no

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Pre-Study on Road User Charging Systems

This report provides international experiences of the effects of different forms of competitive tendering in three subareas of transport policy: Local public transport, rail and domestic aviation. A general conclusion is that competitive tendering is associated with increased cost efficiency.

The effects on market efficiency vary, depending on whether public authorities use the gains of reduced costs to improve NORDIC NO. 1 2006 | 33

ANNOTATED REPORTS

Foreign Visitor Survey 2005 Title: Foreign visitor survey 2005 Authors: Arne Rideng, Jan Vidar Haukeland TØI report no: 813/2005 Language: Norwegian with English summary Available on www.toi.no

This report presents the results of the Norwegian foreign visitor survey 2005, including data for the summer season (May–September). In the year 2005 a total of nearly 3.86 million foreign guests stayed overnight in Norway, while 1.25 million were on a day trip from abroad. Foreign tourists spent a total of 26 million guest-nights in Norway in 2005, of which holiday guests constituted 20 million guest-nights. Business travel from abroad showed a considerable increase in 2005. Likewise, there has been a considerable increase in the number of holiday guests, especially those travelling by air.

The most important source market for overnight stays is Germany, followed by Sweden, Denmark, the UK, the Netherlands and the USA. Altogether, 28 per cent of the foreign guest nights are spent on hotels etc. The holiday travellers during the summer period mainly use four types of accommodation, namely hotels etc., friends and relatives, camping sites and rented cabins.

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Road Pricing, Public Transport and Equity Title: Road pricing, public transport and equity Author: Harald Minken TØI report no: 815/2005 Language: Norwegian with English summary Available on www.toi.no

How will road pricing affect the demand for public transport and the supply of public transport services? What are the equity implications of road pricing and toll financing? Two minor literature reviews have been carried out to help to answer these questions. Road pricing has a potential to induce a "virtuous circle" of increases in both public transport demand and supply.

The main determinants of the equity impacts are the composition of the group of motorists driving in the charged area prior to the charge, and the use of the revenue. The report contains a list of relevant websites as well as an ordinary reference list.

blem oriented, but there should also be a random element in surveillance.

As regards speed surveillance, sites and times should be based on accident data and speed measurements. Random distribution of the visible surveillance resources in time and space is preferable. A stationary surveillance method produces clear effects, in contrast to mobile methods which are directed towards individual lawbreakers from a moving police car.

Automatic speed surveillance has a clear effect which results in speed reduction, and reduction of fatal accidents and accidents with injuries.

In Sweden, seat belt use is at a high level in an international comparison. However, surveillance increases seat belt use when it is intensive, easily visible and combined with information campaigns and advertising.

Effective Traffic Surveillance Title: What is effective traffic surveillance – A literature review Author: Susanne Gustafsson and Jörgen Larsson Series: VTI publication, N42-2005 Contact: Susanne Gustafsson, susanne@gustafsson@vti.se Jörgen Larsson, jorgen.larsson@vti.se

VTI has gathered information concerning the traffic surveillance methods which improve observance of the law by motorists and thus traffic safety in an effective way.

This is primarily a matter of reducing the mean speed of vehicles, reducing drink driving and increasing seat belt use.

Very large increase in traffic surveillance is needed to improve traffic safety.

Surveillance should however take different forms with regard to speed, seat belt use and drink driving. Generally, however, all types of surveillance should be based on accident analysis, be planned and have a clear objective. Surveillance should be pro-

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the level of services in public transport, as well as on how the "surplus" is used, e.g. whether incentives for improved market efficiency are imposed on operators. When it comes to general economic efficiency, there is a lack of systematic research and documentation. In general, no form of competitive tendering is superior to another in all cases or in relation to all types of effects. Moreover, sector and country specific characteristics of the environment create challenges when it comes to the application of experiences in a Norwegian context. Despite these challenges, the report concludes with "rules of thumb" for the use of competitive tendering i local public transport.

Countries which have long experience of drink driving surveillance, inclusive of low blood alcohol limits, relatively high risk of detection and support by the mass media for surveillance, also have the lowest proportion of drink drivers. The objective of random breathanalyser tests must be to deter persons from drivning affected by alcohol and not primarily to catch and punish drink drivers. There is a strong relationship between the number of breathanalyser tests and the drop of fatalities in traffic. www.vti.se/nordic

ANNOTATED REPORTS

Financing of the Road Sector

siderable proportion of the public tax revenues as a whole in most countries that have been studied. At the same time it can be seen that only a fraction of the revenue from road taxes is used for road management. Taken together, this means that many public activities are in need of, and interested in, road taxes in order that the general budget should add up. With some important exceptions, primarily in the US, revenue from the taxes on road traffic is not earmarked for use within the sector. On the other hand, research about especially congestion charges shows that a critical factor in gaining acceptance appears to be that the revenue is earmarked for a special purpose.

The aim of this work is to present an outline picture of how the road sector is financed in different parts of the world.

Owing to considerable gaps in the statistical material, it is difficult to create a coherent picture of what roads cost and how they are financed in different countries.

The main features of how the road sector is financed are however clear.

Title: Financing of the road sector – an international general view Author: Gunnar Lindberg och Jan-Eric Nilsson Series: VTI publication, N49-2005 Contact: Gunnar Lindberg, gunnar.lindberg@vti.se Jan-Eric Nilsson, jan-eric.nilsson@vti.se

The financing of the road sector is fairly uniform all over the world. Most of the activity is based on revenue from national budgets, and the coupling to the significant taxes that are levied is weak or completely absent. Everybody is grappling with the same problem that is associated with the fundamental economic characteristics of the road sector – roads are not really suited to market economic solutions.

This does not mean that there are no options, but there are no easy options.

Nothing new has really happened in this respect. What is new is that many countries are changing to procurement of the construction and maintenance of roads.

Another constant picture is that everybody is trying to find new forms to finance roads. One clear trend is to introduce more toll roads, a trend which is probably facilitated by the steadily increasing traffic volumes. Another trend is that construction and maintenance are increasingly undertaken on a procurement basis which is sometimes referred to as commercialisation. A number of partnership projects between public and private players have also been initiated.

Air Pollution by Traffic – a Health Problem

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Air pollution by traffic Title: The external costs of traffic air pollution Author: Lena Nerhagen, Bertil Forsberg, Christer Johansson och Boel Lövenheim Series: VTI publication, R517 Contact: Lena Nerhagen, lena.nerhagen@vti.se

The picture that emerges is that petrol tax is the dominant source of revenue from the taxation of road traffic, and that in many countries petrol tax accounts for more than half the revenue generated by road traffic. Road taxes also make up a con-

Air pollution by traffic affects both people and the environment, something that we all know. In Stockholm, Sweden, every person loses, on average, two months of his/her life because of air pollution. In order for these negative effects to be included in the planning of new roads and other measures in the road transport system, a price must be put on the effects that air pollution has on the environment.

The main objective of a recently completed project has been to draw conclusions from previous calculations and based on

these propose a method that can be used in cost-benefit analyses and marginal cost calculations for the local impacts of traffic air pollution. The project included a comparison of the costs from a study made in 2002, where the Impact Pathway approach developed in the ExternE-projects was used, with the costs used by the Working Group for Cost-Benefit Analyses (ASEK).

This comparison revealed large differences, primarily with regard to particulate matter, and it was necessary to find the reason for this and to propose an improved method for calculating costs.

It was found that the explanation for the difference found between the study from 2002 and the values used by ASEK was that the latter also includes a value put on wear particles. Wear particles are a pollutant which is not included in the ExternE calculations, but which are significant for air quality in Swedish urban areas. They are generated, inter alia, through the contact between the vehicle and the road surface.

This is a mainly a problem in countries where studded tyres are used in winter.

Research has shown that wear particles make a considerable contribution to the total concentration of particulates in urban areas. Even though the pollutants that have the greatest significance for health costs are fine particles, i.e. exhaust particles, the conclusion drawn is that wear particles also give rise to health impacts. In the calculation method proposed by the project, this has therefore been included as a component.

In the project it was also discussed what value to place on a year of life lost. Few studies have so far been carried out concerning the value placed by the population on preventing a premature death. It was therefore concluded that the best option at the present time is to calculate the value of a year of life lost from the value of a statistical life that is applied in analyses of traffic safety. The price of a lost year of life in Sweden today was estimated to be about MSEK 0.5.

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NORDIC DENMARK Danish Road Institute Helen Hasz-Singh Guldalderen 12 Postboks 235 2640 Hedehusene Phone +45 46 30 70 00 Fax +45 46 30 71 05 Email hhz@vd.dk Web www.vd.dk

NORWAY

FINLAND VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Kari Mäkelä P.O.Box 1000 FI-02044 VTT Phone +358 20 722 4586 Fax +358 20 722 7056 Email kari.makela@vtt.fi Web www.vtt.fi

NORWAY

ICELAND Public Roads Administration Hreinn Haraldsson Borgartún 7 IS-105 Reykjavik Phone +354 563 1400 Fax +354 562 2332 Email hrh@vegag.is Web www.vegagerdin.is

SWEDEN

Institute of Transport Economics Nils Fearnley Pb. 6110 Etterstad NO-0602 Oslo, Norway Visiting address: Grensesvingen 7, Oslo.

Phone +47 22 57 38 00 Fax +47 22 57 02 90 Email toi@toi.no Web www.toi.no

Norwegian Public Roads Administration Thorbjørn Chr. Risan P.O. Box 8142 Dep N-0033 Oslo Phone +47 22 07 35 00 Fax +47 22 07 37 68 Email firmapost@vegvesen.no Web www.vegvesen.no

VTI Magdalena Green SE-581 95 Linköping Phone +46 13 20 42 26 Fax +46 13 14 14 36 Orderphone +46 13 20 42 69 Email magdalena.green@vti.se Web www.vti.se/nordic

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